I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for sending control information in a wireless communication system.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc. These wireless systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting multiple users by sharing the available system resources. Examples of such multiple-access systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) systems, and Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) systems.
In a wireless communication system, a Node B (or base station) may transmit data to a user equipment (UE) on the downlink and/or receive data from the UE on the uplink. The downlink (or forward link) refers to the communication link from the Node B to the UE, and the uplink (or reverse link) refers to the communication link from the UE to the Node B. The Node B may also send control information (e.g., assignments of system resources) to the UE. Similarly, the UE may send control information to the Node B to support data transmission on the downlink and/or for other purposes. It is desirable to send data and control information as efficiently as possible in order to improve system performance.